In The Checklist Manifesto, Atul Gawande writes about the importance of list making as a process of working through critical decisions, and list reviewing as a critical element to support aspirations. Marc Andreeson, a checklist user, attained extraordinary success by inventing the web browser. Later he joined the board of eBay and Facebook and co-founded Ning. Andreeson's secret: before going to sleep, he writes down three to five things he plans to accomplish the next day on an index card. " . . . I try like hell to get just those things done. If I do, it was a successful day." When he completes other tasks, he uses the back of the card (which he calls his "anti-to-do list") to record what he has finished. At the end of the day, he tears up the card -- mission accomplished -- and reaches for another.

Like gathering fallen leaves, teachers use checklists to organize their responsibilities by context, urgency, projects, next steps, energy, etc. "[S]uccess," writes Gawande in Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance, "requires making a hundred small steps go right -- one after the other, no slip ups, no goofs . . . "

After reading Gawande's checklist for checklists and re-reading Lifehacker's seminal checklist of do's and don'ts, I spent a few hours combing through online education sites to find the best teacher checklists. The section below categorizes my favorites into several sections: Checklists to Give Students, Checklists to Give Parents and General Checklists Useful to Teachers. If you know of others, please provide links in the comment section.